The administrator cited the fundraising drive to build 'The Horseshoe' a century ago in his reasoning.
As naming rights deals have gradually encroached on North American sports over the past six decades, most college football stadiums have remained blissfully unadorned. Michigan Stadium is still Michigan Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium is still Notre Dame Stadium, and so on and so forth., Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork was asked whether the Buckeyes would ever consider selling the naming rights to Ohio Stadium. The administrator was noncommittal.
"Obviously, there's a lot of historic value in that and what that means. If you go back to how they raised the money to build the stadium, every county contributed, and they did not want to take away from state dollars or tuition dollars," Bjork said. "If that ever has to get put on the table, it's the same conversation. At this point in time, you can never say never on anything."
Ohio Stadium was constructed in 1922 as the largest poured-concrete structure in the world. It cost $1.49 million , and was indeed The Buckeyes would not be the first high-profile program to strike a naming rights deal—USC, for instance, has anwith United Airlines for its playing field—but a complete rechristening of "The Horseshoe" would signal a brave new world in college-athletics commercialism.Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest.
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